On Call: An Original Short Story Page 5

  “Dr. Filstrup, I need to speak with him.”

  “I’m here,” Lou said.

  “Dr. Welcome, get me off speaker, please.”

  Lou stifled a grin at Filstrup’s discomfort, and with a what-can-you-do? shrug, took the receiver.

  “Hey, Gary,” he said, pressing the phone to his ear to seal off as much sound as possible, “what gives?”

  “Welcome, thank God you’re there. I’m in trouble—really, really big trouble. I need to see you right away.”

  “Talk to me.”

  “I can’t. Not from where I am.”

  “Where, then?”

  “My house. You have the address?”

  “Of course,” Lou said.

  “When can you get there?”

  Filstrup kept quiet and still. Lou forced any urgency from his voice, and pressed the receiver even tighter against his ear. He checked his Mickey Mouse watch, a Father’s Day gift from Emily. Nearly four o’clock—eight hours before he was due at the ER for the graveyard shift. McHugh lived in a tony neighborhood, midway between the Capitol and Annapolis.

  “I can be there in about forty-five minutes,” Lou said.

  “Get here in thirty,” McHugh urged. “Before too much longer, the police are going to show up here to arrest me.”

  “For what?”

  “For murder.”

  He hung up without saying good-bye.

  Also by

  Michael Palmer

  OATH OF OFFICE

  A HEARTBEAT AWAY

  THE LAST SURGEON

  THE SECOND OPINION

  THE FIRST PATIENT

  THE FIFTH VIAL

  Photo credit: Bill Miles

  MICHAEL PALMER is the author of fifteen novels of medical suspense, all international bestsellers. His books have been translated into thirty-five languages. In addition, Palmer is an associate director of the Massachusetts Medical Society Physician Health Services, devoted to helping physicians troubled by mental illness, physical illness, behavioral issues, and chemical dependency. He lives in eastern Massachusetts.

  This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  “On Call” copyright © 2012 by Michael Palmer.

  Excerpt from Political Suicide copyright © 2012 by Michael Palmer.

  All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

  www.stmartins.com

  Cover photograph © Luis Louro/Shutterstock

  eISBN: 978-1-4668-2491-1